“Interstellar” A cinematic journey through space

“Interstellar,” directed by Christopher Nolan, is an ambitiously crafted technical marvel, successfully firing on all chambers of the human heart.

The film takes place in the not-too-distant future.

Armies and other extravagant, nationally funded institutions have been cut—including NASA—focusing all efforts in agricultural production.

Like a second-coming of the Dust Bowl, dust storms strike, causing respiratory problems in farming communities, essentially making the occupation suicidal.

Corn becomes the only crop that will grow in the earth—soon to no longer be the exception.

Mathew McConaughey plays Cooper, an ex-pilot, ex-engineer, and corn farmer with dreams never to be fulfilled, as he was born in the “wrong time.”

Cooper must join the underground remnants of NASA to find a new planet to inhabit before humanity ceases to exist.

“Interstellar” radiates a sleek, sophisticated kind of cool that you can’t deny. Nevertheless, as Anne Hathaway perfectly described, “it has blood in its veins.” This places the film in a lonely league of mass-released films with substance.

McConaughey gives a gut-wrenching, vulnerable performance.

The love tale between him and his children, separated by the immensely vast, cold distance of space, was powerfully electric, and suffocating like soundless thunder in the silence of space.

Dr. Brent, played by Anne Hathaway, was an exceptional supporting character—while technically the antagonist at points (but not in the shifty-eyed, mustache twisting way)—providing juicy juxtaposition to Cooper’s more traditional, save-all-mankind hero.

Interstellar remained truthful to the mechanics of sound in space—rather, the absence of sound.

It was chillingly effective, toying with the audience’s expectations of eardrum-shattering explosions.

Composer Hans Zimmer returned to masterfully score another of Nolan’s films. The arrangements of melodic, otherworldly orchestrations in non-diegetic implementations during the space voyage were genuinely awesome.

The space travel scenes were utterly entrancing.

Drifting through Saturn’s rings of vibrant star dust, ice, and moons—the seemingly infinite series of rings gleaming as one—was astonishing.

The film demands to be seen on the big screen!

An IMAX viewing would most effectively convey the cinematic vision all creative parties worked so hard to achieve.

I commend Nolan for crafting an intelligent, grandiose narrative that entertains in an effortless manner—most of the time.

My one and only gripe with the film was, perhaps, the third act.

I cannot pinpoint exactly what irked me.

It could have been a pacing issue, or merely a less tight and effective act compared to the more well-crafted acts that preceded and followed.

Certainly though, I was simply not as engrossed—there was a brief disconnection from the cinematic magic, but fortunately, the final act did not disappoint.

Upon leaving the theater, student Amilene Valencia struggled to sufficiently convey her thoughts and sentiments of the film, “my mind is so f***** right now. How do we go back to reality?”

“Interstellar” is a slick, sophisticated Sci-Fi film with brains and heart; while not flawless in execution, its ambitions in visual aesthetics and melding scientific theory into a love tale are undeniable. Go see this film. Now. 5/5 Paws